Afterthought
by FireAngel375
Summary: Mr. Curry has a broken heart. Doctor Who/Paddington cross over AU.


Mr. Reginald Curry meandered back to his flat in the gathering darkness with a heavy heart.

 _Stupid._ He had been so very _stupid_.

Perhaps his indiscretion stemmed from his many years as a bachelor. Or, more likely, he just had a slip in judgment. Whatever the reason, it had been a very long time since he had felt anything for another human; And to be rejected so harshly...

He sniffed hard to keep back the moisture that gathered in his eyes.

Eventually his busy mind did wander to the curious bear, Paddington, that his beloved 'Honeypot' had run off with. Reginald's frown deepened as he fumbled with his house keys. He sincerely hoped, with a shudder, that the neighbors had gotten to the bear in time. He may have had reservations about a bear moving into the neighborhood, but he did not wish death upon the creature.

Reginald cleared his throat as he walked into his home and shut his front door behind him. The flowers still clutched in his hand dripped rainwater in a pathetic way onto his carpet. He considered tossing the bouquet onto his coffee table when the front doorbell rang. He jumped.

"Who could that possibly be at this hour?"

He turned back to the door to reopen it and relief spread through him. The young lady he had hired to help with his house managing stood on his stoop. Of course he didn't remember hiring her, but she never asked for money- so he kept her on anyway.

"Hello Mr. Curry," The woman said brightly. She held a large brown paper bag in her arms, full of groceries. "I know I'm a day early but I noticed your fridge was empty and-"

She placed the bag onto the coffee table and turned around to face him. When she got a good look at him, her eyes widened with worry.

"Oh Mr. Curry! You're all wet!" The woman said in alarm. She rushed over to assess him like she would a child. She gently pushed his hair out of his eyes and cupped his face. He looked down at her with his eyebrows raised because of her short stature.

"It started to rain on my way home, Clara." Reginald's shoulders sagged.

"What have you got there?" Clara gestured to his bouquet.

Reginald halfheartedly waved the dead plant at her, tears threatening to leak from his eyes again. He remained silent for a moment, his knees visibility shaking. With reluctance he attempted to explain.

"Oh it was just awful," He groaned. He handed her the flowers and she examined them skeptically. "You know that woman I told you about?"

Reginald stepped over to his couch and let it catch him as he collapsed backwards. It creaked under him in protest. He pulled his scarf from his neck and sniffed again.

"Little miss Honeypot?" Clara asked, with a amused smile. "The woman with the atrocious blond hair?"

"It isn't atrocious, it's quite lovely." Reginald snapped.

Clara snorted but stopped herself when she saw the miserable look on the old codger's face.

"She rejected me," Reginald let out a moan like a wounded dog and covered his eyes with his arm dramatically. "I was stupid enough to try to impress her and she rejected me."

A frown pulled on the corners of Clara's face. She placed the dead flowers on the table and sat herself on the couch next to Reginald. He began to wring his hands together, and his breath quickened from anxiety.

"You're not stupid. You just had a little case of..." Clara paused and hesitated. "...'puppy love'. It happens to the best of us."

"Does it?" Reginald's eyebrows furrowed. Tears finally did begin to fall, much to his embarrassment. "Have you ever been in 'puppy love' Clara?"

A strange look Reginald could not read overcame Clara's face and she sighed.

"Of course I have," Clara grabbed a tissue from the box on the table and inched closer to him. She could smell the rain water on his clothes. He pulled away at first but she shook her head.

"I'm not going to hurt you, it's alright."

She got so close to Reginald that he could see every subtle freckle on her cheeks. She had a very cute little nose, he observed. She slowly reached up to his face and dabbed at the tears that fell; No look of judgment, just gentle hands.

"Turns out Millicent planned to kill that bear I made such a fuss about."

Clara shook her head. "I should have seen it coming, she does work for a museum as a Taxidermist. Did you do something about it?"

"I called the Browns," Reginald clasped his hands in his lap and his head inclined downward. "The husband said I was using a funny voice!" His voice rose unconsciously then, and he sounded very cross. "I do NOT have a funny voice!"

Clara's face started to turn red as she choked back her laughter. Reginald looked at her wide eyed and started to wonder how he never noticed how pretty she happened to be in all the weeks she had been around. Perhaps, he thought, he had his sights set on the wrong person this whole time.

It took a minute for Clara to regain her composure. When she did she apologized and Reginald just shrugged. He reached over to tuck a strand of her hair behind her ear, and to his surprise she reached up to his hand, cradled it to her cheek, and kissed the palm.

A fierce blush rose on Reginald's cheeks from the intimate action and Clara became flustered. She let go of his hand and smoothed her skirt as she quickly stood up.

"How 'bout I put these groceries away, and you can tell me more about what happened." She picked up the bag off the table and headed towards the kitchen.

#######

Some time later, Clara had laid tea out on the table. Reginald munched on a biscuit as Clara hovered around his head with a flat iron. She had declared one of her first visits that it would be much more fitting for how he dressed if he were to flatten his hair.

At first he did find the suggestion odd; He had always just let his hair flop all over the place. It also turned out he rather liked feeling her fingers running through his hair and the heat of the flat iron. Somehow her working on his hair melted some of the loneliness away. He agreed to it every time she suggested it now.

He finished his biscuit and ran his tongue over his bottom lip in thought. It was then he noticed he could see down her blouse when he stood in front of him. For the second time that night Reginald found himself blushing.

"There now," Clara said, stepping back from him with a hand mirror. "Looking much more dapper."

He reached up to his side burns and smoothed them down. He had almost forgotten everything that happened with Millicent earlier- but then his eyes fell onto the dead bouquet.

"I found that on a lamp post," He gestured to the table.

"And you offered them to your lady friend?" Clara picked up the sad bundle once more and looked over to him.

"I didn't want them to go to waste," Reginald picked over the remaining biscuits in the plate.

"You meant well I'm sure," Clara sighed.

"Would you like to have them?" Reginald asked, his face brightening up suddenly.

Clara's eyebrows rose. "Why me?"

"Well you're the only other pretty girl I know," Reginald stuttered the words out. "And I think you'd appreciate them more."

Clara was about to reply when a car door slammed outside, with excited chatter following the sound.

Clara drifted to the window to look outside. She saw Paddington hop out of the car, looking dirty but happy. The husband had his arm around his wife. His children had large grins on their faces as they traipsed into the house. They were followed closely by Mrs. Bird.

"It looks like you saved the bear after all Mr. Curry."

"Did I?" He scrambled to his feet and pulled back the curtain to spy Pattington closing the front door to the Brown's apartment behind him.

"I guess that makes you a hero then!" Clara smiled and leaned her head against his shoulder, watching his face as he peered over at the Brown residence.

After a few moments, Clara walked over to the coat rack by the door and pulled a silver watch out of one of the pockets. The watch had circle like patterns on the face, and it felt unusually heavy. Clara closed her eyes and held the watch close to her heart as if she were listening to it intently.

"I found something tied to a lamp post too," She said with a cheeky tone once Reginald realized she no longer stood next to him. "Would you like to see it?"

She looked sad for a second but Reginald did not register it; he was looking away from the watch as if repulsed.

"Oh I don't so much like that," He said quietly. He paused, and reached over to take it from her anyway. He held it up to his ear and their eyes met. "Is it... speaking to me?"

"Surely not, that would be silly," Clara attempted to keep her face straight, but her bottom lip did wobble a little. "But what do you hear it saying?"

"It's saying...Open me. Over and over, in a very Scottish voice," He hesitated.

"Suppose you should do what it says," Clara suggested. Her voice slightly shook but she appeared to remain calm.

Slowly Reginald opened the watch face and a sudden curious light began to emit from it. It poured up into his eyes and a flood of memory came to him in an instant, and abruptly the man called Reginald ceased to exist.

"Clara?"

"Welcome back, Doctor."

######

 **Some Notes:**

I saw Paddington a week ago or so and just had to write a little follow up about what happens to Mr. Curry after the events of the movie. I know a second Paddington is coming out and Mr. Curry is in that one too, but we can just count this as an AU or say that for whatever reason The Doctor has to go back undercover using the fob watch. The idea came about when myself and a few other tumblr users were musing about the idea of Mr. Curry being the Twelfth Doctor in disguise and he was there to investigate if Paddington was an alien.

The piece about the flat iron was inspired by Randomthunk on Tumblr, and this oneshot is dedicated to Mylastbox, also from Tumblr.


End file.
